By Allan Fox: #2 IBF, #11 WBC heavyweight contender Tomasz Adamek (48-2, 29 KO’s) will reportedly be back in the ring to face a top 15 contender in May in a fight that could be staged in the United States. Adamek sees himself getting a world title shot if he wins his fight in May, according to Polish boxing news. HBO is expected to televise the fight.
For Adamek to get a title shot he’ll need one of the champions to select him from the other contenders because he recently turned down an IBF heavyweight eliminator bout against #1 IBF Kubrat Pulev. Had Adamek taken that fight and beaten Pulev, he’d be the IBF mandatory challenger for IBF champion Wladimir Klitschko. Adamek said it wasn’t a big enough fight for him, and that he had to think of his career to choose an opponent that would be a bigger fight.
Some boxing fans think Adamek was just making an excuse to avoid what would have been a very tough fight against the unbeaten Pulev. We’ll see if the excuse was valid or not when Adamek announces who his next opponent will be for May. If turns out to be another easy option like the ones Adamek has pretty much been fighting since he moved up to the heavyweight division in 2009, then you’ll have a pretty good idea that he chose not to fight Pulev due to how dangerous he is rather than him not being popular enough to fight.
Adamek says he has no interested in facing Andre Golota again. Adamek already stopped Golota in the 5th round in October 2009.
It’s likely that Adamek will get selected by one of the Klitschko brothers to fight either later on this year or in early 2014, even if Adamek fights a non-ranked contender in his fight in May. Wladimir Klitschko looks to be just taking easy fights at this point in his career, so he’ll probably jump at the chance of defending his title against Adamek.
Ideally, you’d like to see Adamek fight an eliminator bout before getting another title shot because he already had a chance in 2011 and was easily beaten by WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko, and Adamek has faced weak opposition since then, and been given two controversial victories over Eddie Chambers and Steve Cunningham.
Bases on how poorly Adamek looked in those fights, it’s likely he’ll face a fringe, bottom level contender in May.
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